NAME

SYNOPSIS

$GIT_WORK_DIR/.gitmodules

DESCRIPTION

The .gitmodules file, located in the top-level directory of a Git
working tree, is a text file with a syntax matching the requirements
of git-config[1].

The file contains one subsection per submodule, and the subsection value
is the name of the submodule. The name is set to the path where the
submodule has been added unless it was customized with the --name
option of git submodule add. Each submodule section also contains the
following required keys:

submodule.<name>.path

Defines the path, relative to the top-level directory of the Git
working tree, where the submodule is expected to be checked out.
The path name must not end with a /. All submodule paths must
be unique within the .gitmodules file.

submodule.<name>.url

Defines a URL from which the submodule repository can be cloned.
This may be either an absolute URL ready to be passed to
git-clone[1] or (if it begins with ./ or ../) a location
relative to the superproject’s origin repository.

In addition, there are a number of optional keys:

submodule.<name>.update

Defines the default update procedure for the named submodule,
i.e. how the submodule is updated by "git submodule update"
command in the superproject. This is only used by git
submodule init to initialize the configuration variable of
the same name. Allowed values here are checkout, rebase,
merge or none. See description of update command in
git-submodule[1] for their meaning. Note that the
!command form is intentionally ignored here for security
reasons.

submodule.<name>.branch

A remote branch name for tracking updates in the upstream submodule.
If the option is not specified, it defaults to master. A special
value of . is used to indicate that the name of the branch in the
submodule should be the same name as the current branch in the
current repository. See the --remote documentation in
git-submodule[1] for details.

submodule.<name>.fetchRecurseSubmodules

This option can be used to control recursive fetching of this
submodule. If this option is also present in the submodules entry in
.git/config of the superproject, the setting there will override the
one found in .gitmodules.
Both settings can be overridden on the command line by using the
"--[no-]recurse-submodules" option to "git fetch" and "git pull".

submodule.<name>.ignore

Defines under what circumstances "git status" and the diff family show
a submodule as modified. The following values are supported:

all

The submodule will never be considered modified (but will
nonetheless show up in the output of status and commit when it has
been staged).

dirty

All changes to the submodule’s work tree will be ignored, only
committed differences between the HEAD of the submodule and its
recorded state in the superproject are taken into account.

untracked

Only untracked files in submodules will be ignored.
Committed differences and modifications to tracked files will show
up.

none

No modifiations to submodules are ignored, all of committed
differences, and modifications to tracked and untracked files are
shown. This is the default option.

If this option is also present in the submodules entry in .git/config
of the superproject, the setting there will override the one found in
.gitmodules.

Both settings can be overridden on the command line by using the
"--ignore-submodule" option. The git submodule commands are not
affected by this setting.

submodule.<name>.shallow

When set to true, a clone of this submodule will be performed as a
shallow clone (with a history depth of 1) unless the user explicitly
asks for a non-shallow clone.

EXAMPLES

This defines two submodules, libfoo and libbar. These are expected to
be checked out in the paths include/foo and include/bar, and for both
submodules a URL is specified which can be used for cloning the submodules.